


The greatest trick he ever did

by Keenir



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: ...but which is which?, Alternate Universe - Thor Movies, Gen, Hallucinations, Illusions, Loki Needs a Hug, random people - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-29
Updated: 2013-08-29
Packaged: 2017-12-25 00:11:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/946354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"The greatest trick the devil ever did,<br/>"was to convince the world he doesn't exist."   -Anon.</p><p>...but, in following that advice, will Loki make more trouble for himself?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The greatest trick he ever did

After walking around the SHIELD encampment for a while, Loki considered returning to Asgard and all it had. It occurred to him to pay a visit to the Armory. But then he had a better idea: borrow a page from Odin's book, and walk among the mortals.

In the town, he managed to eat at the diner without arousing any suspicion, though he could hear tongues still waggling about Thor's shattered-cup debacle.

And then, as he was getting up to leave, Loki overheard part of a conversation between two townspeople: "...don't buy it. The devil's greatest trick was that he convinced the world he doesn't exist. So you..."

 _Theologically, it's hardly original. But as tactics go... perhaps. Yes,_ Loki thought, able to see promise in that strategy which would at once deny Thor his Hammer, and deny Asgard... Loki closed his eyes.

"...and I'm telling you, she'll never appreciate you if you're always around," another local said to his neighbor, "so if you're serious, you need to take a little time to yourself, and then..."

Thus, Loki returned to the SHIELD encampment.

The effort to summon lightning without any physical tools, while not impossible, took time. Loki spent three days on it, keeping himself shrouded in invisibility all the while.

It helped that Mjolnir radiated powerful energies on its own and without prompting.

**~~~**

The storm was not the sort Thor might have summoned or shaped, _but then, he tended to have only one setting. This is a land of rare thunderstorms, and the lightning must be measured accordingly._

And one of the bolts of lightning - or rather, a cadet branch of the main line of a bolt - struck one of the support struts of the encampment, sending its electrical discharge in all directions along its way. Blackout.

When the emergency lights came on in the SHIELD encampment, a panic arose: "The Hammer - it's gone!" was the cry on everyone's lips.

But it was not here and SHIELD that Loki thought of as this happened. It was of Asgard. _Let them think what they will. That I slipped out of Asgard to steal Mjolnir which destroyed us both. That I walked out of Asgard to gain Mjolnir so that we might travel in secret. That I vanished from Asgard and Mjolnir vanished from Midgard and the two have naught to do with one another. Let them think whatever foolishness they can, for they will anyway._

Watching the SHIELD personnel scrambling to repair the fried computers in a vain hope to find the Hammer, Loki smiled. _This is much more entertaining than that which I had originally planned._

**~~~**

Days went by with Loki holding up the illusion, an Atlas of this work, the very opposite of Hercules holding aloft Nox - for as he continued this, Loki knew the enchantment grew ever-stronger.

And he tried not to think of if the others were missing him, if the Warriors Three had even noticed the throne was empty and why. _No doubt, they think me hiding as I used to, secreted away in some nook of Asgard with my studies._

**~~~**

Eventually, SHIELD packed up, drawing out the process of leaving as if wishful thinking could change things. _They should know better. I do._

Loki waited a week, two weeks more before he erased the tire treads and impressions of human feet from the ground around Mjolnir. _Any sooner, and attention might be caught, be it that of SHIELD or some other._

"And still I receive no guests from Asgard," Loki remarked to himself and a passing coyote who seemed to regard him with a modicum of interest. "Doubtful they think I am still squirreled away as though some petulant child - had I been going to do that, would I not have done it before I was anywhere near the throne?" _In the wake of Thor's gaining Mjolnir and Odin's blessing, most likely best._

The coyote yawned.

"I agree, they do have that effect on one," Loki told it.

**~~~**

When he was confident that the spell would reinforce itself and create a feedback loop which would end only when Mjolnir uprooted itself, Loki made himself walk away from the grounds he had come to haunt so much.

He cast a long longing glance through the sky in the direction of Asgard. _Have they stopped looking for me? Or did they never start to begin with?_ and, with that, Loki steps out into the wider world. "Why should I return to a place which does not wish me in it?"

**~~~**

"Are they that glad to be rid of me?" Loki asked the remains of the Lizard after he has smited the man-creature, expecting exactly the answer it gives him: none.

A week ago, Loki had fended off and dealt a doom to the man-sized insects which inhabited another portion of the underground realm of Midgard.

Before that, a paltry opposition from a metal-skinned man with a flair for ego and pagentry and literally magnetic controls; _for him, such a pity I had mastered those three at a fraction of my present age. Wasn't a terribly fair fight, but then he didn't seem interested in having one._

And yet even the Lizard's carcass responded to Loki's deeds more than Asgard did - the scent of decay and charred flesh wafted up to greet his nostrils. Asgard by contrast is a void, an absence of _anything_ at all.

**~~~**

'Your mind controls your magic' had been one of Loki's first lessons in the art of seidr, the magics of Asgard.

 _You're still here,_ Loki thinks, looking at the illusion-clone he had generated earlier while bringing an end to HYDRA. _Why are you still here?_

The other Loki resolutely ignores him, writing something in a book all the while.

**~~~**

Loki leans against the wall, not bothering to close his eyes, not caring if sleep comes for him this day or this night. His mind is his last connection to the hallowed halls.

Those hallowed halls that Sif has come here from. He knows he should have noticed her entrance, but decides it is within the realm of possibility that he underestimated her skill in accessing locked and secure places - their adventures with Thor and Volstagg in Alfheim come to mind - and so says nothing to her as she walks up to him. Loki does smile at her, though, sending his mind a thank-you for the hallucinatory balm. _Why would she show up_ now _, any more than she failed to before?_

His head rocks to the side from the force of an imagined slap; he remembers the slenderness and steel of each of Sif's fingers, and has no trouble extrapolating from her wrestling grips to this. The curse/benefit of a good mind, to reanalyze things like that.

Thinks - suspects - nearly outright believes - that Asgard and its denizens are having a good laugh at his expense, enjoying the sight of the little prince and what has become of him.

There are creatures on Midgard, Loki knows, which pose at least a potential threat to his considerable life... _Hulks_. And considers finding one. _At least for the challenge. For the novelty. For..._ and can't even bother to shake his head.

**Author's Note:**

> Casualty list:  
> * the Lizard (Spider-Man)  
> * Judas Bugs (Mimic)  
> * Dr. Doom (Avengers cartoon, Fantastic Four)  
> * HYDRA (Captain America, Avengers cartoon)


End file.
